- A big thing of Obree’s training regime was taking 3-4 days rest in between all out training sessions. Usual I don’t like leaving that long. But, with a little niggle at the weekend, I ended up taking a few days off. When I did train yesterday, I felt in good form, I could train for longer in the ‘race zone’ than usual. Power figures looked good. So maybe there’s something in that philosophy.
- I enjoyed watching the Tour of Britain climb Honister Pass yesterday. Rivers of water, but a great crowd who showed you can enjoy a cycle race without acting like a lemon and running alongside the riders.
Honister pass on a dry day.
- Today, I was surprised to see one rider (Bardiani) do the time trial on a road bike.
- Wiggins was simply awesome in todays time trial. There can’t be many cyclists who have the luxury of putting on 8kg to become a real time trial ace. It will be an interesting world time trial championship between Cancellara, Martin and Wiggins at the end of September.
There is no magic number of hours/days for everyone which gives the best recovery results, as it is highly individual and dependent on short/long-term fatigue, the intensity of the last training session(s), sleep, diet, etc.
A lot of people have observed that fitness gains related to cycling can happen incredibly quickly, with adaptation time from a few hours to a couple of days, but those power gains are usually masked by fatigue, so go unnoticed without a break. Luckily, the fatigue fades roughly 3 times quicker than the gains BUT people still don’t notice gains sometimes because they may start the next cycling session before full recovery.
I recommend the following article on supercompensation. Highly-trained athletes need to pay attention to timing a lot more when it comes to resting for competition, because they also lose power quicker from extended time off.
http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/PlannedOvertraining.html
I’ve read elsewhere that your muscle need a good 72 hours to repair after a hard effort.
I imagine any training in that 72 hour window just undoes the partial muscle repairs, and resets the 72 hour timer, meaning you’re delaying the repair process and not actually making any more improvement.
The problem is forcing yourself to take 3 days off.
I’m interested in trying this training plan over the winter: 2-3 days endurance riding, working on your cardio efficiency and not stressing the muscles too much, followed by a day of max effort with sharp intervals, and then 3 days rest before starting again.
Enjoy reading the blog, I hope you’ll accept my follow request on Strava
It’s a difficult balance between rest and training, but more often than not an enforced rest actually helps (along as its not for weeks). Good point about spectators, the tdf has become some sort of annual event for idiots to run along and not actually watch the race (americans no doubt!)
Honister Pass is spectacular and driving up it in a car is an achievement! (I went by bus this summer so was able to have a good look around)
La Tour de Bretagne has been horrible/wonderful and whoever wins will be one heck of an athlete! It has been great viewing